I just saw an ad for a standalone mail alerter.
It looked like a tilt sensor was mounted on the mailbox door.
I thought a tilt sensor was a good idea.
I've done contact and motion sensors, but never thought of a tilt sensor.
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Link? Does it have external contacts? FWIW, I use a contact sensor on my mailbox. Seems to work ok.
I have too, and on my package bin, but I had continuing alignment issues. More clunky of an install.
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Probably not.. A hack. There's a bunch of them. Specs on this one says 12v battery. I have one of those on an indoor gate button. Weird little thing. Like a miniature AAA.
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Good idea; however, I would take one of my current devices and check the connectivity. Distance and the mailbox metal may cause issues. The Ring device (below) has an antenna external to the mailbox; however, this may not work with the now-common brick installed mailboxes. This device looks like a motion sensor with an antenna.
You could also try a contact sensor with the active segment outside the mailbox. But the environment may be a problem.
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LOL. Not in my neck of the woods.
Plus they're mostly plastic here.
I've had one knocked off by a snow plow and it didn't break.
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Mine is metal. It is also rusting on the inside (unintended consequence of a brick enclosure). Maybe I need a plastic mail-box.
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Here's that 12V battery I was talking about.
I bought a spare.
You can't just go down to the hardware store and pick one of them up.
An inch long.
I've had good luck with the range of Visonic MCT-370 ZigBee contact sensor. Seems to typically be available through commercial channels. I've used this eBay source. I just attach it with a bit of duct tape. Makes the semi annual battery change easier. I do have a plastic mailbox.
Visonic MCT-370 SMA Long Range Wireless Magnetic Door Window Sensor 0-103468 | eBay
I use a Zigbee motion sensor mounted in the back of the mailbox. The mailbox is plastic.
I was concerned that having anything at the front of the mailbox which even remotely got in the way of the postal carrier would result in a demand to remove it. Technically, USPS asserts "ownership" of your mailbox.
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The Yolink Garage Door Kit 1 is a solid choice when range is an issue. Their kit is essentially a tilt sensor and their relay, except that the garage door relay is limited to a 5v DC supply. If you look at their instructions for the kit, you'll see that they recommend testing by shorting the "signal" contacts with a paper clip. This says that they are nothing more than low voltage relay contacts, perfectly suitable for closing the contacts of a zigbee button or contact sensor.
Despite always stating in their maketing and sales informaition that a Yolink hub is required, that isn't the case when you use their D2D (device to device) connection.
This is precisely what I have done for our community mailbox, half a block away and it works perefectly every time. Only difference is I'm using the Yolink relay and a Yolink contact sensor because the mailbox door swings out, instead of tilting.
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Gave one of these to an in-law years ago.
They never installed it. 
Probably still around somewhere...
Time to cash in. 
I had a garage door tilt sensor on the front of my metal mailbox that is inside a custom brick enclosure because Zigbee doesn’t like metal mailboxes. The sensor was meant for inside the garage, so when it got wet from being outside, it stopped working.
My solution was to use a motion sensor. I drilled a 1” hole in the rear of the mailbox so the sensor sits in the hole. Moisture got into the first motion sensor and ruined it so I wrapped another in a ziploc bag and trimmed off the excess. This has been working great for months.
If you have a standalone metal mailbox, perhaps a contact sensor would work just as well.
Depending on how far away the mailbox is from a repeater you may need to add another repeater.
